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Showing results for tags 'sales report'.
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Toyota's three-year stretch as the world's largest automaker ended in 2011, when the company endured production setbacks in the aftermath of the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami. However, Toyota is back with a vengeance and posted a 15.8% increase in sales in the US during the first quarter of 2012. On top of that, the Japanese automaker is on top of the global sales chart again based on Q1 2012 results. Toyota moved 2.49 million vehicles globally in the first three months, edging GM's 2.28 million sales and Volkswagen's 2.16 million, Bloomberg News reported. In 2011, GM was the best selling brand globally. GM sold 9.03 million vehicles while Volkswagen and Toyota moved 8.16 million and 7.9 million respectively. However, GM seemed relax about the fact that it is beginning to lose its sales crown for 2012. GM spokesman, Jim Cain, commented that one quarter is an awfully short window of time when GM has a big vision for global growth. "GM today is a profitable, growing company, and our plan is to grow more and earn more," said Cain in an e-mail. "We've got the ingredients to do both over time, especially with our aggressive new product launch calendar and the momentum Chevrolet, in particular, is building around the world," he added. Indeed, the first quarter is like the 10km mark in a marathon race. There is still a long journey ahead for GM and Toyota. It is still too early for Toyota to rejoice.
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[extract] Thanks in part to the introduction of a new 1.0-litre Ecoboost engine and the continual popularity of the Fiesta, Ford
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[extract] The Italian-based supercar manufacturer, Lamborghini, has recently opened its second dealership in Mumbai, India. The dealership is located in Prabhadevi and is being run by the Raging Bull
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Hyundai Sonata influenced the development of the 2013 Nissan Altima
SYF77 posted a blog entry in MyAutoBlog
[extract] There are certain events that will change the landscape of the automobile industry. Although most carmakers do not admit it, the launch of the Hyundai Sonata three years ago was one such event. It takes a lot of -
Nissan has just released the fifth generation Cima in the Japanese market. It is basically a re-batched Infiniti M35h with minor exterior changes, such as a large chromed grille. The car will only be available as a hybrid, using Nissan's VQ35HR engine coupled to an advanced HM34 electric motor. The combined output is 369bhp with a massive 620Nm of torque. Like its Infiniti cousin, all the power is sent to the rear wheel via a 7-speed automatic gearbox. Going by the performance of the M35h, the Cima should reach 100km/h from rest in just 5.5 seconds. The large luxury sedan achieves 20% improvement in fuel economy over 2015 standards and is SU-LEV certified. This also qualifies the vehicle for preferential tax breaks under the Japanese tax system that promotes the diffusion of environmentally friendly vehicles. Therefore, the car is fully exempted from the automobile acquisition tax and automobile weight tax. The Cima has traditionally been Nissan's rival to the Toyota Crown Majesta. To date, the Nissan Cima has sold over 278,000 units. The Cima goes on sale on 21st May at Nissan dealers nationwide in Japan for a price range of
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[extract] Very soon, we may not get Infiniti models that are manufactured in Japan. This is a pity but inevitable in order for the luxury car manufacturer to survive as the cost to build cars in Japan has risen due to the high Japanese Yen. The new Infiniti manufacturing base has not been selected yet but Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, was quoted saying that both North America and China are under consideration. For the readers
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[extract] The UK
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[extract] 2011 was a record year for the VW Group, posting 8.36 million sales worldwide. The man at the helm, Martin Winterkorn, naturally gets rewarded handsomely as VW nearly doubled the pay for its chief executive. Winterkorn earned
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[extract] The BMW Group has achieved its best ever first quarter in worldwide sales on the back of March
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The Copen is a two-seater convertible for the man with a small budget. However, time is running out for this affordable little car as Daihatsu is ending its production in August after a 10 year run, due to poor sales in recent years. The beginning of the end for the Copen could have started in January 2011 when Daihatsu announced that it would withdraw the Copen from the European market due to the ongoing strength of the Japanese Yen. The Copen was launched in June 2002 and enjoyed its highest sales in 2003, moving 11,000 units in that year. However, sales declined to around 2000 cars in 2011. I feel that Daihatsu already made plans to withdraw the sales of the Copen a few years ago as no automaker would leave a model unchanged for a decade. The model was unveiled in 1999 at the Tokyo Motor Show as the Daihatsu Copen concept. It was originally designed with a 660 cc turbocharged engine in order to meet Japanese kei car regulations, but it also came with a more powerful 1.3 L engine for the other countries to meet the environmental emissions standards. According to SgCarMart, Jack Cars Enterprise is still offering the 660cc turbo Copen for sale. If you wish to get a unit, do act fast.
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[extract] The Mazda CX-5 is a groundbreaking vehicle for the Hiroshima-based automaker. It is Mazda's first car featuring the new KODO - Soul of Motion Design language first shown in the Shinari concept vehicle in May 2010. It is also the first vehicle featuring the company's Skyactiv Technology which uses a rigid, lightweight platform combined with a new series of efficient engines and transmissions. It seemed that Mazda
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It looks like the Chevrolet volt fails to create that spark with consumers. Low sales volume and high inventory, which stands at 6,300 vehicles at end of Feb 2012, caused General Motors to make the decision to halt the production of the Volt and Opel Ampera (European version of the Volt) for five weeks. At the current buying rate for the Volt, the current inventory can last for 154 days. The shutdown will cause 1300 employees to be temporarily laid off. The production hiatus comes after a retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman commented, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market." If the sales is so poor at the moment, it seems like a poor business decision to spend money to retool the plant. Or, they could have scheduled the retooling to coincide with the plant shutdown. In 2011, the GM moved 7,671 units of the Volt, which is far short of the 10,000 unit sales target. In January 2012, GM only sold 1,023 Volts, the lowest in the past five months. It looks like GM needs to do a lot more to promote the Volt if the company wants to meet the sales target of 45,000 Volts in US this year. President Obama has personally endorsed the Volt by saying that he intends to buy one when he leaves the office in five years
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China brands may not win many hearts in Singapore but at the other part of the continent at South America, China cars are slowing gaining acceptance. For instance, Lima (Peru) taxi driver Mario Segura was disgusted by the thought of buying a Chinese-made car. He had doubts about the vehicles' durability, service and resale value. "Little by little, I heard favorable comments," said Segura, speaking in a Chery showroom in the Surquillo district. He had just paid $12,000 in cash for a new Fullwin XR sedan, half the cost of a comparable Fiat or Renault. "It took a long time to decide, but I'm risking it," he added. Chinese car brands were introduced in Peru in 2006 and they has about 17% market share now. There are approximately 90 different Chinese brands in Peru now. Price is the main selling point of the Chinese cars. New Chinese cars typically sell for half to two-thirds the cost of a comparable European, U.S. or Japanese vehicle, said Guido Vildozo, an auto industry expert with consultants IHS Automotive in Lexington, USA. The low price is the result of cheaper labor in China and low development cost due to design and mechanical imitation. Chinese manufacturers are entering the Latin America market as the population becomes more affluent. China exported 800,000 cars in 2011 to Lain America but hopes to boost that number to 2 million by 2015 and to 3 million by 2020. Latin America is identified as the starting ground for Chinese automakers
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[extract] Daimler may have fallen behind its German rivals, namely Audi and BMW, in terms of profitability but it would not go down the road of reducing its workforce in an attempt to narrow the gap. "I see no reason to look exclusively at personnel when it comes to increasing efficiency," said Mr Wilfried Porth, Daimler
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[extract] Over the first six months of 2011, BMW sold 121,614 cars in China, representing 27% of the Bavarian automaker
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Hyundai intends to distinguish between its upscale models and its mainstream vehicles and to accomplish this, the Korean automaker is considering a plan to market its premium vehicles under a Genesis sub-brand, not unlike what Toyota has done with their Lexus branding. Dave Zuchowski, executive vice president of sales for Hyundai Motor America, said that this proposed move would replace Hyundai's round "H" badge with a new badge on rear-wheel-drive premium vehicles, such as the Equus, Genesis sedan and Genesis Coupe. These upscale vehicles would get the Genesis badge with an alphanumeric naming system. Mr Zuchowski clarified that Hyundai has not made a decision about the rebranding exercise yet. At this moment, the company is studying if the usage of the Hyundai badge would hamper or improve sales. Anyway, the combined sales of the Genesis and Genesis Coupe increased by 13% in 2011 to 32,998 units, as compared to a year ago. Additionally, in the first year of production, Hyundai sold 3,193 units of its US$60,000 Equus sedan. That
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[extract] After losing its status as the world
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It was a sad year for Toyota in Singapore this year when the figures came out. BMW has popped the Japanese car maker off its throne after 9 years and taken the top spot, being the best selling car brand here. Second place went to Mercedes Benz and Toyota came in a shy third place with their sales shrinking to nearly half at 3562. The main cause for this shift in the car sales arena was the limitation of COEs last year which triggered tougher competition and edged the COE premiums upwards, and in a market like that, the premium car makers like BMW and Mercedes tend to fair better because their consumer base are less sensitive to the price changes and the car makers can squeeze out more profit margins to outbid competitors for the COEs. Needless to say, the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand had affected Toyota greatly while BMW surged ahead in terms of global sales as well, delivering 1.38 million cars, up by 12.8%. Interestingly, Porsche though outside the top 10, posted an increase in sales of 30.4% to 584 cars and it is partly due to the new merger between Porsche Financial Services and Hong Leong Finance which allows buyers of the newly launched 911 or any other Porsche to pay a downpayment of as low as $1. This places Hong Leong Finance as the leading finance company here which will most probably solidify the advantage that the German carmakers have here.
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Automakers who thought that the Chinese market is a gold mine would have to think twice. Demand in the country has slowed down towards the end of 2011 such that its sales increase is now less than what was achieved by the US market, a first for the last 14 years according to Bloomberg. Other emerging markets such as India and Brazil are slowing down as well. Combined sales of cars, busses and trucks only rose 2.5% to 18.5 million vehicles in China in 2011, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. However, US demand for light vehicles climbed an impressive 10% in 2011 to 12.8 million vehicles. 2012 is expected to experience an annual growth of 13.5%. With such a positive outlook, it is perhaps why American automakers like Ford, Dodge and Cadillac are aggressively launching new models at the recent Detroit Auto Show.
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Kia Motors is benchmarking Volkswagen as it aims to become the world's best-loved car brand, said the company's vice president Hyoung-Keun (Hank) Lee. Kia wants to be a "people's brand" like Volkswagen, Lee told Automotive News Europe in an interview. He said to achieve the goal the company is using Volkswagen models as its standard for the development of new cars. For the new Kia Cee'd compact car that will go on sale in Europe next year, Kia's target "in terms of ride and handling is the VW Golf," Lee said. "We want to become the world's best-loved brand. This will automatically translate into sales volume and market share," he added. Kia aims to increase its annual global car sales to 2.8 million in 2014 from an expected 2.4 million this year, Lee said. This year, the company's global production will be more than 2.5 million vehicles, including some Hyundai models that Kia produces in its plants in the United States and Slovakia. Kia will increase production in the United States from 280,000 to 360,000 units next year and it also has ambitious sales goals in the country. Lee said Kia is aiming for a record 500,000 car sales in the U.S. in 2012 from an expected 470,000 this year. Kia will not expand production capacity too fast, Lee said. The company has learned from Toyota which ran into quality issues as it expanded global production rapidly to become the top global automaker. Said Lee: "If we increase our capacity too fast, there is the risk of a lot of mistakes like at Toyota. They grew too fast. Their employees and suppliers couldn't follow and they couldn't keep their original system."
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[extract] Porsche had a great year in 2011. The German luxury car maker
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[extract] Recently, I blogged about Audi
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[extract] The Dodge Caliber was on sale in Singapore for a while but was unloved by Singaporeans. It seems that the Caliber received similar sentiments from the rest of the world such that Chrysler Group has finally ended the production of the slow-selling hatchback after almost six years. The Caliber hatchback was launched in early 2006 as a replacement for the Dodge Neon sedan and coupe models. Annual sales peaked at 101,079 in 2007, but soon fell to 84,158 in 2008 and just 36,098 in 2010. Through the end of November this year, Dodge sold just 33,632 Calibers. Though the Caliber
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[extract] Launched in Singapore around in Feb 2009, the present generation Kia Cerato Forte (as above) became the third best-selling car in Singapore in 2009 and 2010. It represents great value for money as it comes loaded with goodies such as cruise control, 6-speed automatic transmission and rear parking assist system in a compact sedan package. The Forte has a clean and sharp design but let
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In this current so-called economic climate, it would not be a surprise to most people that many are cutting down on their expenses. Especially when buying a car, many would consider what car they could get that is within their budget. Some would look into practicality and some would consider styling or performance. And there are even some who would consider all the three abovementioned factors. Shelby SuperCars has managed to register sales for 10 of their upcoming Tuatara model in a country where buying a US$1.3 million car is considered common or nothing. This is a perfect example to show that it is not difficult for a supercar manufacturer to sell their expensive cars in this current economic situation. US supercar manufacture, Shelby SuperCars made a trip recently to the UAE for the Dubai International Motor Show. The trip was to launch and promote their upcoming Tuatara model and also to find a company to import and distribute the car in that region, where some of the richest people in the world live. During the auto show, the company not only attracted potential distributors but they also attracted a fair amount of potential customers and the company managed to seal 10 orders during the auto show which amounted to US$13 million dollars. And the best part is, Shelby SuperCars has not yet finished the production of their Tuatara model. Shelby SuperCars hopes to reclaim the title of fastest production car from the grip of the Bugatti Veyron. Most of us would know that before the Veyron took that title record, Shelby
